As Chris Sugden makes clear (pp 13-14) evangelicals are not enthusiastic. And
many Catholics will agree with Matthew Duckett (pp 24-25). Nor is it in favour
with the new generation of post-1992 liberals, who have effortless assumed
positions of power and influence. All three women priests on the Draft Bishops
and Priests (Consecration and Ordination of Women) Measure Revision Committee.
(The Very Revd Vivienne Faull, Dean of Leicester, The Ven Christine Hardman,
Archdeacon of Lewisham and Greenwich, and The Revd Canon Anne Stevens) voted
against. The Archbishop, of course, spoke passionately in favour. But then - in
a way which was not the case with his proposed amendments to the Women Bishops
legislation - his credibility was on the line.

The Archbishop, moreover, is clearly in denial. He is unable
to reconcile himself with the past and with its serious consequences. In a speech to the PCPCU in Rome last year (see
the excerpts on page 27) he proposed the Anglican (Lack-of-) Communion as a
pattern which others might follow:

‘There can be no doubt, though, that the situation of
damaged communion will become more acute with the inability of bishops within
the same college to recognise one another’s ministry in the full sense. Yet,
in what is still formally acknowledged to be a time of discernment and
reception, is it nonsense to think that holding on to a limited but real common life and mutual acknowledgement of
integrity might be worth working for within the Anglican family? And if it can
be managed within the Anglican family, is this a possible model for the wider
ecumenical scene?’

The answer to what was tragically proposed as a rhetorical
question is of course: YES! ‘The inability of bishops within the same college
to recognise one another’s ministry’ (which Williams, in a fit of wilful
amnesia, ascribed to the future) has been a feature of the life of the Communion
for many years. Indeed it preceded the ordination of women to the priesthood in the Church of England and proved no
deterrent to that innovation. Anglicans have not, in this and other matters,
pioneered a new sort of ecumenism (‘a limited but real common life and mutual
acknowledgement of integrity’). They have, on the contrary, self-consciously
ruptured and destroyed the real visible unity which (amongst themselves, at
least) they once enjoyed.

It is one thing to counsel acceptance of all
this as the best that can be managed under the circumstances. But to propose it
as an ecumenical template to others is little short of absurd.

For reasons quite different from theirs, we must
agree with Mesdames Faull, Hardman and Stevens. The Covenant is not fit for
purpose.

What are we to make of a Church which is not as good as its word?

Liberal Christians are forever telling us that we
should be modelling good practice in a world of prejudice and intolerance.

What then does the world make of a Church which
gives solemn undertakings to its own members, and then betrays that trust?

The Manchester group spoke of disruption and discontent if the
Synod, in its legislation, were to remove the safeguards and assurance which had made the ordination of
women possible. That was surely sound advice. But the Synod took no heed. In this edition we rehearse again the promises made,
and seek to persuade the Church, its Bishops and its Synod to honour them. The
credibility of the Church of England, ecumenically and in the secular world
depends upon its trustworthiness and reliability. The cost of failing that test
is simply unthinkable.

For decades now ordinary clergy up and down the country have known
the sadness (bereavement almost) of the closure
of churches in which they have worshiped and ministered. No bishop has hitherto
shared their heartbreak. But such empathy now becomes a distinct possibility as
the Rt Revd Nick Baines, presently Bishop of Croydon, takes up the reins of the
diocese of Bradford – long scheduled as the diocese most likely for the chop.

Baines has been an energetic bishop whose cheerful demotic
style (as evinced in publications reviewed in this paper) may well account for
his preferment. New Directions has watched his career with interest, and will
continue to do so.ND